I first met Dean in the spring of 1995.Â
Well, for a guy who can't remember what he had for breakfast this morning, I was close on the year Dean and I first met. It was actually 1994 (
Thank god for scrapbooks) as evident from the top left photo below that I took of our banquet table that year. That was indeed his first Festival as I previously reported.
Sometime after the 1994 Festival, and before the NY Event the next year, Dean moved back home to Crawfordsville, IN. We still kept in constant phone contact, as we had become very good friends. He approached me with the idea of starting a Midwestern D.S. Fan club, and shortly thereafter he formed the Dark Shadows Society of Illinana(
Illinois & Indiana)) Fan Club. The First Official Newletter was dated May/June of 1995. We started with just a few of us who resided in Illinois and Indiana, but soon grew to incorporate several members from other states. Dean hosted two Halloween parties at his home in Crawfordsville,(
1995 & 1997) and Rich Blanco and I drove down for both of them. The photos below are from the 1997 party.
This gives me another opportunity to share a funny story about Dean that I relayed to MsCriseyde earlier this evening. Members, Chuck and Sharon, (
pictured below) seen in the photos below, drove from Ohio to join us at the 1997 party. Dean, knowing Chuck was a computer Wiz, asked him if he could take a look at his printer, stating it had not worked since the day he purchased it nearly a year ago. It took Chuck about 30 seconds to fix it. He opened the lid of the printer, took out the ink cartridges and removed the manufacturers tape that covers where the ink would come out of the cartridge, and reset them in the printer. We all started laughing and giving Dean a hard time.
As you can see from the photos, we did indeed have a Dark Shadows Halloween style party. We did a skit based on the old T.V. game show "To Tell The Truth". Rich, Chuck, and Dean were the 3 Barnabas', Sharon played panelist Julia Hoffman and Dean doubled as the other panelist, Prof. Stokes. I played Nicholas Blair, the host of the show. Julia and Prof. Stokes would ask the 3 Barnies questions in an attempt to discover which one was indeed the real Barnabas Collins. We had a hoot of a time recording it.
I think it is difficult for those of us who knew him well to believe he is gone so suddenly, and celebrating his life here, in our thoughts and memories, is a part of the healing process we have to go through. Personally, I'm completely stunned by the events surrounding his death, so please forgive my rambling on.Â
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